Night Mission Pinball
Platform: Commodore 64
Gametype: Undefined
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Description 

Night Mission is a pinball simulation for one to four players and can be played with keyboard or joystick. The game was published by Sublogic and developed by one of the owners Bruce A. Artwick. It was the answer to the successful "Raster Blaster". Night Mission‘s topic is airplanes. This topic probably stems from other Sublogic successes, as they became famous with their flight simulator Flight Simulator II. Utterly interesting is the "FIX mode" where one can set 38 different variables and physical parameters of this pinball simulation as number of balls, the inclination of the table or the bumper impulse. 

 Design 	 

Clear design of the pinball table in Hires mode with good sequences and bonuses. Adjustable colours. In the initial settings very realistic behaviour of the ball. The highlight is the FIC mode in which one can adjust numerous variables and physical parameters. 

 Controls 

 Q   = throw in coin. Press this key several times to raise the credits (4 coins = 4 games for 1 player or 1 game for players). 

 S   = set number of players. Up to four players can be chosen (1x key "S" = 1 player, 2x key "S" = 2 players and so on). The score display of each players shows by flashing whose turn it is  F7  = stretch launching spring 
 F1   = relax spring 
 C=   ("Commodore"key) or  CRSR ⇔   "CRSR left/right" key = shoot ball 

 C=   =left flipper ("Commodore" key) 
 CRSR ⇔   = right flipper ("CRSR left/right" key) 

 CRSR ⇑ ⇓   = bump table on the right ("CRSR up/down" key) 
 Shift left   = bump table on the left (left "Shift" key) 

 P   = pause game. Continue by pressing pause again. 

 Points 

A,B,C,D F,L,Y = 1.000 & raise of bonus 
 NIGHT Rollover = 1.500 & raise of bonus 
 DROP Rollover = 2.000 
 Big Bumper = 90 
 Small Bumper = 50 
 Outer Spinner = 100 (500 when lit) 

 Sequences 

FLY = 5.000 
DROP =10.000 
ABCD = raise bonus multiplayer 
ROP but no D = SPECIAL is lit 
NIGHT-sequence = 10.000, lights NIGHT arrows, activates Bomb Release Line City Targets 
NIGHT and all Cities bombed and ABCD = 25.000 points, lights DiveBomb Arrow 
Bomb Release Line Entry = 5.000 
Dive Bomb Chute Entry = closes D-Lane Gate (if mode has this feature) 

Captive Hole: 
 1. = turns on Night Lane Lites 
 2. = turns on DROP arrows 
 3. = increases Outer Spinner to 500 
 4. = rotates DROP arrow 

NIGHT Lane Lites: rotate using either flipper 
Complete Lane Lites = 5.000 point 
Dive Bomb: Inner Spinner = 200 & lights City Lites (100 points per light). 
Multi-Ball play: if NIGHT sequence and FLY sequence are complete, the gate for the ball chamber is activated. A ball that gets into the chute is kept in the chamber and a new ball is launched. ABCD, a lost ball or balls in the chamber free all balls. 

 Bonuses 

SPECIAL: D after ROP makes a free game and 30.000 points 
Exceed free game score: 1 free game 
Exceed high score: 3 free games 
At the end of the game the display of the number of balls changes to "Match" and two-digit tens numbers are randomly shown. If the last number shown matches the end score of a player one free game per match is rewarded (i. e. If the number 0 appears, there is one free game for each player – up to 4) 
General Stars: There is a star every 1.000.000 points. The start appear above the score number of the corresponding player. 

 Other features 

 The joystick buttons can be used for moving the flippers. Push the right joystick forward and back to control the striker. 
 FIX mode: press the keys  F    I    X   to get to this mode. Here you can change 38 game variables by entering new vales followed by  RETURN  . Press the  CLR   key to leave this mode. 

Highscore: Insert a formatted disk and press  CTRL   +  R   to load the current mode and the highscore list or  CTRL   +  W   to save them.
CAUTION: The disk is deleted before the score and mode will be saved!! 

 Colour designer 

The colours can be modfied by using the designer system. You can use the following keys: 

 F3   = select high or low resolution / multicolour 
 F5   = change colour nibble 
 £   = change screen nibble LSB 
 *   = change screen nibble MSB 
=  = (Key "=") change border colour 
 @   = change background colour 

Just experiment with the different values. Colour changes apply to the text and the graphics. If the text disappears, press the key  F5   to get some contrast back. 

 Tips 

 An important trick: stretch the strikerl fully with the key "F7". Then loosen it a bit by using key F1”. Now shoot the ball with the "Commodore" key. 

 By the right tension of the spring the ball first goes through the chamber. This has the effect, that the D-Lan Gate at the lower left and the ball cannot get lost that way. 
 Now it is important to erase the letters N I G H T. If you then shoot the 3 fields at FLY, the bar for the chamber outlet gets closed. 

 If you are lucky now and make it to shoot the ball into the chamber it will stay there. Now you can shoot a new ball into the chamber and then a third one. With the 4th ball the gate open. Then you play with 4 balls. 

 Bombs: If you hit the fields at A, B, C, D or F L Y you get one bomb. This gets you additional 1.000 points. If you make it to shoot all fields A, B, C, D the bombs count each 3x, 3.000 points. If you do that again you get 5x the points, 5.000 points per bomb. The fields at A, B, C, D are acitivated anew if you shoot into the Chute Entry.


http://www.c64-wiki.com/index.php/Night_Mission_Pinball
